Track Top 101: What's a Track Top, How It Fits & How to Wear One

Designed for athletes initially to warm up, cool down, train, and compete in, the track top has since become quite versatile, actually. But since we can't all be athletically gifted, we've culturally found ways to release the old tracksuit into the wild for the common folk to nab.

The result? 

An essential layer for match day in the terraces, or thrashing beer around the pub garden in celebration when you can't make it to the stadium. And it's not always football-related. With all the comfort it brings, many a track top has seen the ins and outs of an airport Wetherspoons, duty free and the coach ride to the hotel on the other side of the flight, particularly for us Brits.

The tracksuit and track top prominence in the music scene spans a boatload of genres as well. The most obvious, Britpop... and whichever side of the pop-war you stood on, there would have been a track top. But in the spirit of honourable mentions, Run-DMC made the adidas tracksuit the uniform for the B-Boys in the 1980s across the Hip-Hop scene, Bob Marley regularly fused sports and reggae together in an adidas track top in the 1970's, and it's still a cornerstone for the Grime scene in the 2000's.

2020 saw the track top and tracksuit in general become something of a work uniform for a whole bunch of us. Be it shirt on top, track pants on bottom, or track top on top, no pants on bottom, when everything ended up being on Zoom, it didn't much matter.

That's proper versatility.

Physically, though, it's a bomber-type silhouette, cinched at the cuffs and waist, but loose enough to circulate a bit of air around your midriff. Usually made from synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon, and elastane for their practicality of being moisture-wicking, durable, and stretchy. Popular choices include technical fabrics for training, such as dry-fit polyester or nylon. They're high-necked, full-zipped, and welt-pocketed, and sometimes finished off a bit of taping down the arm, common with adidas' triple stripe and Fred Perry's laurel wreath detail. 

And what do you know, we've got a right selection of them in our aptly named track top category, from the likes of adidas Originals, Fred Perry, Sergio Tacchini, and Umbro. 

In short, they offer a balanced silhouette. They're designed to fit comfortably, not snug and skin tight, nor overly baggy- so you can get a T-Shirt underneath it. The shoulders sit naturally, and the wrist cuffs right where they ought to. They're actually pretty low maintenance. 

Run-DMC did it with a black fedora, jeans, and adidas Superstars with the laces taken out. But if you're not a hat guy, we've pulled together a lookbook of track top outfits that blend both sport and street in a union that goes back to the 1970's, but changes with the motions. Again, versatile bit of kit. 

Scroll down for a portfolio of a bunch of times we put one of our guys in a track top and thought: 

'Coooor, that looks alright doesn't it'.